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Monday, October 08, 2012

The Smell of Mom:

The Smell of Mom:
The ability to find and latch on to their mother's nipples is a very
important one - without being able to suckle, newborns would quickly
perish. But how this ability actually works and what causes it are very
complicated questions. Even in utero mammals can be exposed to a range
of different experiences, complicating the issue even further!

Previous research had already demonst

rated
that the main olfactory epithelium (MOE) - the principal smell organ -
was key in suckling, and Stowers and her team believed a pheromone would
be the trigger (as it had proved to be with the European Rabbit). To
determine what was the trigger they set about removing maternal fluids,
such as milk and the mother's saliva, from the newborns' environment.

It was only when the amniotic fluid was removed that newborn mice no
longer suckled - suckling had been observed in the absence of mother's
milk and saliva. Next the team separated the amniotic fluid into its
constituent elements, expecting to find a smell trigger. But nothing
produced the suckling response. The amniotic fluid had to be present in
its entirety for suckling to occur.

The process is an
interaction between nature and nurture. While the mother's amniotic
fluid is unique to her, newborns must learn its odour in order to
suckle. These results may have implications in explaining other
behaviours. Stowers commented, "If the mouse can effectively use this
mechanism to release such an important behavior, it is possible that
signature odors underlie the release of other apparently innate
behaviors; in mice or even humans."